In the early hours of 17 May when I was in Patna, several
comrades came rushing to me to draw my attention to the small report in Patna
papers about a jeep accident in Nepal involving Comrade Madan Bhandari and
Comrade Jeevraj Ashrit. On enquiring over the phone, we learnt Comrade
Bhandari's body was yet to be located. With lots of apprehension and little
hope, I left for Varanasi.

But the message received on 19th dashed all hopes and, leaving my meeting
behind, I flew to Kathmanduon 20th noon. The CPN(UML) leadership briefed me
about the mysterious circumstances of the accident in the airport lounge itself
and from there I went straight to Dashrath Rangashala to pay my last respects to
the remains of the two great leaders of the contemporary communist movement of
Nepal. Streams of people kept on visiting the place all day and night with tears
in their eyes. I also visited the two grief-stricken families.

Just a few months back, I had gone to Kathmandu to attend the Congress of
CPN(UML). By the time I left, the Congress was in its concluding phase and
despite his obvious preoccupation with the Congress deliberations he came to see
me off at the airport. That was my last meeting with him. I had never thought of
visiting Kathmandu in such a short period and on such an occasion.

Earlier, after his being elected the General Secretary of CPN(UML) we had a
long discussion in Patna for several days. We had another chance to meet in
Delhi for a few days when he invited me to have the next round of discussions in
Nepal. Relations between our two parties date back to the late '70s and we had
regularly been conducting central-level discussions. Ours has been an ideal
fraternal relation where we exchanged our views and experiences on various
matters without ever interfering in each other's affairs. Our two parties
evolved more or less on the same pattern, and in some respects of mass work
their Party did precede ours.

Com.Bhandari personally came to our Calcutta Party Congress and also
addressed the mass rally after the Congress. In his speech in our Party Congress
he nicely put forth the necessity of bringing the Party's role to full play and
concluded by saying that we have been friends through hard days and shall remain
friends forever. He was quite right.

He became quite popular with our comrades during his stay in Calcutta. In his
demise, our Party has lost a great internationalist friend.

I found him a man imbued with self-confidence and a noble sense of dignity
and honour.

The day before I left Nepal after attending the CPN(UML) Congress, he came to
me with a newspaper in hand which carried the report of an Indian communist
leader's advice on the Tanakpur issue. He was quite agitated to see such blatant
interference in his party's internal matter. All these memories of a friendly
face, of a bold and dignified personality kept haunting me through the night of
20th May.

The funeral procession was scheduled for the next day, the 1st of May. As the
government of Nepal had decided to extend national honour to the departed
leaders, a military band offered salute to the dead bodies and led the
procession. In my life, I have never seen a funeral procession of such magnitude
with unending waves of people from all walks of life surging from all sides to
have a last glimpse of their leaders. It appeared as though the entire Kathmandu
city had come out on the streets. Controlling this human sea was an uphill task
and volunteers forming a human chain had a tough time regulating the surging
waves of the masses.

Thousands and thousands of people lined the two sides of the entire route of
the procession and there was not even an inch of space left on the rooftops and
balconies of the roadside buildings from where women showered flowers and
sprinkled water over the procession. It took the procession nearly four hours to
reach the cremation ground. Comrade Emil from the Communist Party of the
Philippines, Comrade Surjeet from the CPI(M), Comrade Farooqi from CPI, myself
as well as leaders from the Nepal party followed the procession in a truck.
Com.Emil and myself had come prepared to march on foot but according to the
arrangement, we too had to board the truck. Emil was all along protesting this
arrangement and eventually we decided to get down from the truck after informing
Com.Madhav Nepal. We covered the last leg of our journey on foot marching with
the processionists.

In my short speech at the cremation site, I pointed out that few years ago
when Nepal was passing through a great historical turning point, the communist
movement needed a theoretician who could integrate the universal truth of
Marxism with the concrete conditions of Nepal; the democratic movement of Nepal
demanded a leader who could fearlessly uphold the banner of consistent
democracy; and the Nepalese nation wanted national figures who could boldly
champion the national interests and aspirations of Nepal. In Comrade Madan
Bhandari, all the three requirements found a unified answer and herein lay his
unique contribution. I paid homage to the fallen comrades and expressed my
heartfelt sympathies to their bereaved families on behalf of our Party.

Finally the pyre was lit and the flames started reducing the mortal remains
of the two leaders to ashes, the ashes that were now to be distributed to
different parts of Nepal. I stood then in silence, lost in my memories when
someone reminded me "It's all over, comrade!" On our way back, the Filipino
comrade told me about similar funeral processions he had watched back home --
the processions of Aquinas and one of their TU leaders. We discussed how Chris
Hani and Madan Bhandari have proved in their death that communism remains the
most popular ideology for the downtrodden people of the world.

When in his speech at our Calcutta rally, Comrade Bhandari had accused the
Indian press of blacking out and distorting their news, many of our Comrades
felt that he should have, preferably, refrained from criticising the press. Soon
I was astonished to see the Indian press just ignore the historic party congress
of CPN(UML). And now we have seen the height of self-censorship when the Indian
press chose to maintain a total silence on the biggest ever funeral-procession
in Nepal. I don't know whether the Indian press is prompted by anti-communist
prejudices or by hatred for a man who stood for his country's interests against
Indian ambitions, but l can now appreciate Bhandari's outburst against the
Indian press.

The journey of Comrade Bhandari has come to an end. But it symbolises the
beginning of a new journey for his Party, the CPN(UML) and I am confident that
the Party will overcome the shock and turn it into strength in the coming days,
dashing the fond hopes of its detractors. The unanimous election of the new
General Secretary, Comrade Madhav Nepal, is a pointer to that.